The invention relates to medical treatment of herpes simplex infections, including herpes simplex, herpes varicella, and herpes zoster, as well as abscesses of the mouth, by topical application of a medicant composition.
Herpes simplex is an infection by herpes simplex virus which is marked by the eruption of one or more groups of vesicles or sores on the human body, especially on the vermillion border of the lips, at the external nares, on the glands, prepuce, or vulva. The infection is commonly recrudescent and reappears during other febrile illnesses or even physiological states such as menstruation and high stress. The infection has also been called, according to its site, fever blisters, cold sores, herpes facialis, herpes febrilis, herpes genitalis, herpes liabialis, and herpes progenitalis.
Herpes simplex virus Type 1 is usually located above the umbilicus and Type 2 is usually located below the umbilicus in the genital area. The two types are morphologically exact and can only be differentiated by means of serological techniques.
Herpes varicella, commonly known as chickenpox, and herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, are infections which are also closely related to herpes simplex. In all the infections, the first occurence of sores from infectious herpes is preceded by symptoms including burning sensations, itching, fever, numbness, headaches, muscle aches, and swollen glands. An acute reaction to the initial outbreak may be so severe as to incapacitate the victim and eruptions may extend from a few days to several weeks or longer, in the case of herpes simplex.
Genital herpes is particularly severe in the case of pregnant women. During birth, the newborn baby is exposed to infection, blindness, brain damage, and the mortality rate for such newborn babies approaches three out of four.
As mentioned above, herpes simplex commonly reoccurs in most patients periodically throughout their lives. Subsequent recurrence of the lesions are signalled by the same symptoms as the original outbreak, in generally the same area where the previous vesicles occurred. Almost anything can cause a recurrence of an attack, such as emotional stress, poor diet, exposure to wind or sun, friction from tight clothing and insufficient sleep or rest.
Various treatments of herpes simplex have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,803 discloses the topical application of lauric diethanolamide to the area affected. Application of a mixture of boric acid, tannic acid, and salicylic acid is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,934. The use of lignosulfonate as a topical treating agent is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,097, and the application of kelp to the affected area is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,120.
Objective: The principal objective of the present invention is to provide a new method of treating herpes simplex, herpes varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (shingles) by topical administration of a medication which has good activity against the various herpes viruses and which further acts very quickly to effect essentially total relief of pain from the affected area. This and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description.